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400 pages, Hardcover
First published September 15, 2020
‘Fucking Christ, I was supposed to be Sideways the spooky lesbian weirdo. I had a fucking reputation to maintain, and it would not withstand a nickname like Lamby. Lamby. Goddamn it.’
‘God, she must be made of silk. Lila Yates, the velveteen witch, who I desperately wanted to belong to, who I was ever so slightly afraid of.’
‘“Boys don’t touch my girls, I swear to God. I can be a fucking monster when I wanna be. I’m not good at a whole lot, but I’m spectacular at terrorizing people until they’ve literally lost it. I can ruin people like you wouldn’t believe. And I wanna wreck their sorry lives.”’
‘In that moment, illuminated by the neon lights, Jing looked like what a witch should look like. Menacing and lovely. She was pure and raw and radioactive. She was more vivid than anything else in the room.’
‘“Can girls not be soft and still be powerful?”’
This book is for you if… you dig dark teenage witch vibes with a significant amount of gay and bi angst. It’s very high school-esque but satisfyingly so.
‘I dodged my feelings by flipping her off.’
‘I guess my point is that teenage girls aren’t supposed to be powerful, you know? Everybody hates teenage girls. They hate our bodies and hate us if we want to change them. They hate the things we're supposed to like but hate it when we like other things even more, because that means we’re ruining their things. We’re somehow this great corrupting influence, even though we’ve barely got legal agency of our own.’
‘‘Why would you go by Sideways?’ He grimaced, looking between Alexis and I like we were twin bugs. ‘It’s because I’m not straight.’ I shot gun hands at him.’
Con:
⇢ insecurities gnaw at her more than ever
⇢ comfort zone under attack
⇢ with more power come more enemies
Pro:
⇢ people who give honest compliments
⇢ evenings are no longer occasions to be lonely and mopey
⇢ hot new witch in town with significant gay vibes
I guess my point is that teenage girls aren’t supposed to be powerful, you know? Everybody hates teenage girls. They hate our bodies and hate us if we want to change them. They hate the things we’re supposed to like but hate it when we like other things even more, because that means we’re ruining their things. We’re somehow this great corrupting influence, even though we’ve barely got legal agency of our own. But the three of us – the four of us, counting you – we’re powerful.
“The ambiguity of it almost makes sense.” Her gaze softened. She looked toward me, but not at me. “I don’t know. We’re at an ambiguous age and we’re ambiguously nice and there’s a lot about us that’s sort of gray or weird, I think. Our bodies in Sycamore Gorge. The kinds of relationships we have. (...) I guess my point is that teenage girls aren’t supposed to be powerful, you know? Everybody hates teenage girls. They hate our bodies and hate us if we want to change them. They hate the things we’re supposed to like but hate it when we like other things even more, because that means we’re ruining their things. We’re somehow this great corrupting influence, even though we’ve barely got legal agency of our own. But the three of us—the four of us, counting you—we’re powerful. Maybe not in the ways that people are supposed to be, maybe in ways that people think are scary or hard to understand, but we are. Magic is ambiguous. It’s scary and flashy and everybody wants it and it really freaks people out. I guess it fits with the rest.”